Keynote Speakers

Ronald, born 1980 in Vienna, Austria, is a Chartered Market Technician (CMT) and a Certified Financial Technician (CFTe). During his studies in business administration and finance at the Vienna University of Economics and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he worked for Raiffeisen Zentralbank (RZB) in the field of Fixed Income/Credit Investments. After graduation, he participated in various courses in Austrian Economics.

In 2006, he joined Vienna-based Erste Group Bank, covering International Equities, especially Asia. In 2006, he also began writing reports on gold. His six benchmark reports called 'In GOLD we TRUST' drew international coverage on CNBC, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. He was awarded 2nd most accurate gold analyst by Bloomberg in 2011. In 2009, he began writing reports on crude oil. Ronald managed 2 gold-mining baskets as well as 1 silver-mining basket for Erste Group, which outperformed their benchmarks from their inception. In 2014 he published a book on Austrian Investing ("Österreichische Schule für Anleger – Investieren zwischen Inflation in Deflation")

Nikki is an independent director for TSX-listed Pretium Resources Inc. and Dalradian Resources Inc. and ASX-listed Beadell Resources Ltd. Prior to 2016, Nikki was the Director of Mining Research at Sun Valley Gold LLC, a US-based, SEC-registered investment advisor focused on the precious metals sector. Previously, she was a Vice President/Managing Director at Haywood Securities Inc., where she focused on building the company’s M&A and financing business in the mining sector. Earlier in Nikki's career, she was a sell-side analyst at Dundee Securities Corp., a buy-side analyst at Sun Valley Gold and acted as a geological consultant for a range of exploration, development and mining companies. In 2000, Nikki was awarded a PhD in Structural/ Economic Geology from James Cook University in North Queensland, Australia, after receiving a First Class Honours Degree in Geology from the same institution. In these various roles, Nikki has developed diverse capital markets and natural resource sector experience over the past 22 years.

Wasif Latif is the Co-Founder, President, and Chief Investment Officer of Sarmaya Partners, an asset management company focused on a unique style of thematic investing. His career spans over 25 years in the investment industry and includes managing equity, global multi-asset, and multi-manager portfolios across mutual funds, ETFs, wealth management, and institutional portfolios. Before founding Sarmaya Partners, Wasif was Managing Director of Portfolio Strategy at Truist, Head of Investment Solutions at Victory Capital, managing over $50 billion in various funds, and at USAA Asset Management he was Head of Global Multi-Assets, where he managed over $38 billion. Wasif has been a frequent guest on CNBC and Bloomberg TV & Radio, and he has been quoted in industry publications like Reuters, Wall Street Journal, and Fortune. He is well-regarded for his insightful commentary and strategic investment acumen.